Oliver Bateman Does the WorkVerified account

the thing i don't miss about academia is telling people, especially non-specialists, that I "work on X subject" and then they immediately recommend a bunch of books I've either read or know about and have no intention of reading

we don't talk about the books, mind you--that would require much more than just dropping a title like "beyond a boundary," which i've annotated almost into nonexistence. no, as soon as I would move to engage, I'd be faced with another recommendation, or silence

but i've never read books anyway. i work with books, incorporate material from books into my work, but i sure as heck don't read them. that's a pretty bougie way to pass the time.

nor do books "furnish a room" in my house. my office is a functional space and the books that are there are in use and related to the work i do. books not currently used for work are stored, much as files on a USB drive are, albeit in far more inconvenient boxes

assume, folks, that i've read (i.e., worked with) pretty much every single book on fitness culture, sports history related to those sports i cover, all sports autobiographies relevant to my work, and so on. or refer to my "working lists" on goodreads.